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This Week In Techdirt History: April 14th – 20th

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from the so-it-was dept

Sat, Apr 20th 2019 01:00pm -

Five Years Ago

This week in 2014, the world was dealing with the Heartbleed bug and turning its attention to the NSA’s possible awareness of it — leading Obama to tell them to start revealing flaws but with no particular incentive to actually do so. It wasn’t clear if the NSA had definitely known about and used Heartbleed, but there was nothing stopping them and people certainly weren’t going to take their advice on dealing with it. Overall, the simple truth was that the government pays to undermine, not fix internet security. Meanwhile, the Guardian and the Washington Post won Pulitzers for their coverage of the Snowden leaks, which made a lot of folks angry including Rep. Peter King and CIA torture authorizer John Yoo.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2009, the BSA was using the spate of stories about Somali pirates to talk about software piracy in a stunningly tonedeaf fashion, NBC was crafting its plans to make Olympic coverage worse and more expensive, the Associated Press was admitting its attack on aggregators looks stupid to the “untrained eye” while failing to explain why it shouldn’t look stupid to everyone else too, and a hilarious but frightening warrant application got a college student’s computer seized in part for using “a black screen with white font which he uses prompt commands on”. DMCA abuse was chugging along as usual, with an activist group using it to hide exposure of its astroturfing and a news station using it to cover up video of it embarrassingly falling for an April Fool’s story. And long before the Snowden revelations, not only were we already seeing revelations about the NSA’s abuse of power, we were already unsurprised.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2004, the internet was still beginning to embrace some of the innovations that define it today: location-based services were on the rise, with Google launching localized ads and mobile phone navigation systems threatening to oust expensive dedicated hardware (something also happening in other areas like event ticket handling), and more and more people were going online wirelessly in one way or another. Of course, along with this was the rise of some more problematic trends too, like patent hoarding houses and DRM. In California, the first two arrests were made under a new law banning all kinds of video cameras in movie theaters, while one state senator was seeking to completely ban Gmail (which was still new) for some reason — though at least the legislature shot down another ban on violent video game sales to minors.

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Comments on “This Week In Techdirt History: April 14th – 20th”

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46 Comments
Anonymous Coward says:

I think this week in Techdirt history, in 2019, is a notable one.

For years, the intelligence community has been working with the corrupt media to manipulate public opinion and to destroy people they don’t like.

This week in Techdirt history, we have a chance to read the work done over the last 3 years, at great public expense, to try to destroy a duly elected president. The president survived the attack, and was, in fact, an obvious crime victim. The US government, under Obama, broke the law to try to win an election. They failed. Then, left-overs from the Obama administration did their best, in complete collusion with a corrupt media, to unseat a duly elected president. They also failed.

Prior to reading the report, I had some hopes this farce may at last be behind us. But now I see the truth – the farce cannot end. The truth is that the leftist democrats and their supporters KNOW that they CANNOT win the next election. Their ONLY HOPE is to find some quasi-legal basis to overthrow the president. So they will continue, until they are dead.

Hope it doesn’t take too long. 🙂

Stephen T. Stone (profile) says:

Re: Re:

Their ONLY HOPE is to find some quasi-legal basis to overthrow the president. So they will continue, until they are dead.

You know, the phrasing of this particular statement sounds as if you believe Donald Trump will be president for a lot longer than the two four-year terms he would be legally limited to serving. I have to wonder if you want him to shut down the 2020 elections because “the leftist democrats and their supporters KNOW that they CANNOT win the next election“. (I mean, why bother having an election if you already know the outcome~?)

That One Guy (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:2 Re:

That’s easy, the mexican government is protecting her against the awesome might of Trump, and in exchange she is using her vast power over the government to keep Trump from using his amazing intelligence and masterful tactics of persuasion to convince them to pay up.

Also Obama’s birth certificate is a vital piece in there somewhere, because hey, why not.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:3 Re:

Seriously, what did you think will happen over the next 18 months? The “resistance” is showing no sign of letting up, even as their conspiracy theories collapse into nothing. Will the Democratic nominee do their best to continue the farce? Now that the American Public can read the Mueller Report, will it persuade people that the president committed TREASON? Oh wait, he didn’t commit TREASON, but he tried to stop people from proving that he committed TREASON. Oh wait, he actually didn’t stop anybody from doing anything, but he is STILL GUILTY!

Is that a winning message? I can respect commitment to a cause, but if that cause involves DESTROYING AMERICA and DESTROYING AMERICAN VALUES, maybe they should just get over it.

Any chance of that? Anyone here ready to capitulate and move their attention back to actually IMPROVING AMERICA? Or do ya’ll just want to DESTROY AMERICA?

Really. What do you want? Will you meet us in the middle, or will we have to continue to embarrass, humiliate, discredit and destroy your ideas and plans?

Meet in the middle? Medicare for Most? Anything?

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:5 Re:

Look, even I can agree with you that we need a health care plan.

Climate change – is a farce. Sorry, no sympathy.

And we have a solution for Income Inequality – GET A JOB (just kidding).

What do you mean by income inequality? Do you think everyone should have the same income?

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:10 Re:

Could I ask your opinion about something I saw recently? I watched Bill Barr (AG) give his press conference about the Mueller report. He was careful, thorough, polite, thoughtful, focused and direct. He was not amused by stupid questions, but quickly put them aside and focused on what mattered. Like a judge, or a sheriff, or a very educated policeman might. He looked like a serious law enforcement official, unlike Obamas “wing man”, or Clapper, or Brennan, which the American public has seen “up close and personal”. That is, he did not look like a ridiculous fool. He looked like her could make an argument, make it stick, and send people to prison if he wanted to.

What’s your opinion? When you watch Pencil Neck Schiff, or Ms. “Impeach 45”, or AOC, do they look serious to you? Or do they look like pathetic liars that have no credibility at all?

Imagine America with Real Law Enforcement. It’s a beautiful thing. To Americans, anyway. What do you think?

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:11 Re:

Green New Deal. Mexico is going to pay for that as well. Er, no, the rich are going to pay for that. Yes, that’s right, the rich. Everything is going to be free. The 1% are going to provide for the 99%. The 1% will be the only ones required to work as everything will be automated or replicated.

Just having some patent/license issues with the replicator. An anomaly really.

Stephen T. Stone (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:12

Jeff Bezos could have fixed the Flint, Michigan water system by now and spent less than 1% of his net worth to do it. The 1% can afford to give up a few million (or billion) dollars and still live comfortably without doing any actual work. Besides, hoarding obscene amounts of wealth with no intent of using it to benefit others is a moral failure of the highest order. No one needs to be (or even should be) a billionaire.

Gary (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:14 Re:

You know the thing about the wealth of the 1%? They didn’t get it by working, and don’t work. Investment banking, inheriting, these things just move wealth around.
Bill Gate made much more money once he stopped running microsoft and just worked at being rich. Trump inherited his millions.

Wall Street investment brokers get rich manganging money, not producing gains.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:15 Re:

I’ve disliked Trump since the mid to late "80s and I knew way back then that he inherited his wealth. Did you think you were imparting some deep insiders secret?

Your generation ever hear about 9/11? Some people did some things. Look it up. Google might return something about it.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:16 Re:

I knew way back then that he inherited his wealth. Did you think you were imparting some deep insiders secret?

it’s not an insider’s secret. Which makes all the proud crowing of the billionaires telling everyone that they can easily achieve greatness by "pulling up your bootstraps" all the more fucking annoying.

A Chinese billionaire was once asked by an undergraduate how to achieve similar levels of success. "Work 100,000 hours," was his reply, "just like I do". Of course, he was referring to the 100,000 hours worked by his employees. Aside from having to navigate the treacherous environment of the 1% backstabbing each other he doesn’t have to lift a finger. Glory to the 996 lifestyle and all that.

Stephen T. Stone (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:16

Your generation ever hear about 9/11? Some people did some things.

Your generation ever hear about context? Because here is some context for you:

Muslims for a really long time in this country have been told that there is a privilege, that there is a privilege that we are given, and it might be taken away. We are told that we should be appropriate, we should go to school, get an eduction, raise our children and not bother anyone, not make any kind of noise. Don’t make anyone uncomfortable — be a good Muslim. But no matter how much we have tried to be the best neighbor, people have always worked on finding a way to not allow for every single civil liberty to be extended to us. So the truth is, you can go to school and be a good student. You can listen to your dad and mom and become a doctor. You can have that beautiful wedding that makes mom and dad happy. You can buy that beautiful house. But none of that stuff matters if you one day show up to the hospital and your wife, or maybe yourself, is having a baby, and you can’t have the access that you need because someone doesn’t recognize you as fully human.

It doesn’t matter how good you were if you can’t have your prayer mat and take your 15-minute break to go pray in a country that was founded on religious liberty. It doesn’t matter how good you are if you one day find yourself in a school where other religions are talked about, but when Islam is mentioned, we are only talking about terrorists. And if you say something, you are sent to the principal’s office. So to me, I say, raise hell; make people uncomfortable.

Because here’s the truth — here’s the truth: Far too long, we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen, and frankly, I’m tired of it, and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it. CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties. So you can’t just say that today someone is looking at me strange, that I am going to try to make myself look pleasant. You have to say, “This person is looking at me strange. I am not comfortable with it. I am going to go talk to them and ask them why.” Because that is a right you have.

— Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota), in a speech at a banquet for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, 23 March 2019

[Note: CAIR was founded in 1994; it grew in size after the 9/11 attacks.]

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:13 Re:

Did you catch Bernie Sanders “scoffing” when asked about paying more tax? You could see on his face he was thinking “wow only an IDIOT would pay more tax than they had to”.

How about we re-distribute Bernie’s wealth, money, 3 houses and such. Good idea? How about Obama’s, too, good idea, right? Far is fair, right?

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:6 Re:

A classic farce involves a group of characters, usually functionally stuck in a single location, where some event or act (often involving deceit, denial or stupidity) triggers a chain of ever-escalating events that quickly become overwhelming and uncontrollable (often shepherded along by further deceit, denial and stupidity) and plunge the characters into a state of chaos and conflict (often while highlighting the fact – obvious to the audience – that cooperation and collaboration could solve their dilemma).

So… sure, I’m on board: climate change is a farce.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:7 Re:

I saw a good report the other day from the CIA that laid bare your way of thinking. You treat your beliefs as religious beliefs, inherently unverifiable, but your heart is filled with the truth of them, even without evidence. It’s rather endearing in one way, but phony and tyranical in another. If you are so concerned, what are you PERSONALLY doing to worship your religion? Whatever it is, good for you, and feel free to do it, because this is America! Worship whatever belief you want to worship.

But leave me and my tax dollars out of it.

That’s fair, right?

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:8 Re:

So… you decide to tell your fellow climate change denier to not use your money to further your common cause.

The genius of Hamilton, ladies and gentlemen. Stay tuned for more whisperings in his head from the Massachussetts tiger fairies and how they failed to convince the judge that Shiva Ayyadurai invented email…

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:9 Re:

The truth unquestionably is, that the only path to a subversion of the republican system of the Country is, by flattering the prejudices of the people, and exciting their jealousies and apprehensions, to throw affairs into confusion, and bring on civil commotion.

Climate Change. Race Relation. Income Inequality. Muslim Bans.

And injuring the Email guy for no reason at all, other than being a slime machine for hire.

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